Anthony Gordon Got Marcus Rashford’s Blessing Before the Biggest Move of His Life

Anthony Gordon has just lived through the strangest fortnight of his career. In the space of two weeks he completed a £69.3 million move from Newcastle United to Barcelona, said goodbye to St James’ Park, flew across the Atlantic, and joined up with England’s World Cup squad in Florida. Most players would call that chaos. Gordon calls it the best two weeks of his life. And the man quietly helping him through it all was the very teammate he is fighting for a place in Thomas Tuchel’s starting eleven.

“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind of two weeks, but the best two weeks I’ve ever had for me and my family,” Gordon said this week. The winger now finds himself in the unusual position of preparing for the biggest tournament of his life while his club career has been turned upside down. England open their World Cup campaign against Croatia on June 17, and Gordon wants to be on the pitch.

The Rival Who Became a Guide

The detail that makes this transfer story unusual is Marcus Rashford. The Manchester United forward spent the 2025/26 season on loan at Barcelona, and Gordon’s arrival in Catalonia raised immediate questions about Rashford’s own future at the club. The two men are also direct competitors for the left wing role in Tuchel’s England side. By every law of dressing room politics, Rashford had reasons to keep his distance.

Instead, he picked up the phone. “He was just telling me how good the lads are there, the team spirit that they have, which I heard already from the people in Barca. So I’m really looking forward to joining up with them,” Gordon told talkSPORT from England’s camp. “He was also telling me about the city, places to live. He’s a lovely guy, very caring. So he was just giving me a bit of information.”

It is a small act, but a telling one. England squads of previous generations were famously divided along club lines, with players admitting years later that they barely spoke to rivals from other dressing rooms. The picture Gordon paints from the current camp is different, even between two men chasing the same shirt.

What £69 Million Actually Bought

Barcelona did not spend that money on potential. Gordon, 25, is coming off the most productive season of his career, with 17 goals in all competitions for Newcastle in 2025/26. In the Champions League he scored 10 times, a tally bettered only by Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane. For a player who began as a flying winger more admired for his pressing than his finishing, the numbers represent a real evolution.

Sky Sports reported the fee at £69.3 million, around 80 million euros including add-ons, with Gordon signing a five year contract. Thierry Henry called it “a great move” for both parties. For a Barcelona side still managing tight finances, it was a major commitment to a player who grew up in Liverpool dreaming of nights like the ones he now expects at Camp Nou.

“Barca is the biggest club on the planet,” Gordon said at his presentation. “It’s the stuff I dreamed of as a child. It really is a dream come true to be here.”

What stands out is that Gordon refuses to treat the transfer as a destination. “I’m not satisfied at all to just play for Barcelona. I want to win everything. This is where my career begins in my mind. So I’m at the stage I always said I was going to be. Now I need to get to the next level again,” he said.

The Number 18 Question

For all the noise around the move, Gordon’s World Cup starts from an uncomfortable position. When England’s squad numbers were revealed, Rashford was handed the iconic No 11 shirt. Gordon got No 18, a number that traditionally hints at a role off the bench. Early signals from the camp suggest Rashford may have the edge on the left side when Tuchel names his team against Croatia.

Gordon’s response to the shirt number reading was blunt. “I couldn’t care less. I think if you go through this team, you could put any player 1-11. We’re all good enough. We’ve all got a case to feel like we’re the best in many ways,” he said.

There is a case for him. Gordon’s pace in behind gives England something Rashford’s more fluid movement does not, and Tuchel has shown through his selections that he values runners who stretch defences. The Croatia opener, against an ageing midfield that wants the game played in front of it, might be exactly the fixture where a direct winger makes the difference. This is the same Croatia side that Jordan Henderson will face on his 36th birthday, chasing a record Bobby Charlton never set.

The Race to Be Ready

The complication is sharpness. Once Gordon’s departure from Newcastle became inevitable, he was phased out of the side, and a winger who spent the spring scoring in the Champions League suddenly found himself training without matches. He admits the layoff was harder than he expected.

“I think even when you have two days off football, you feel like you never played a game. It’s crazy. You lose your touch, you lose everything,” he explained. “So not playing for a couple of weeks was difficult, but I’ve trained really well. I was fitter than I thought in that game. I’m on track really well, really.”

The game he refers to was England’s 1-0 warm-up win over New Zealand, in which he featured in the second half. The conditions told their own story. “It’s difficult because the pitch was dry. So even getting your touch right and just getting used to that was tough. But we got there, still thought we created some chances. We haven’t played together for a while. So it’s just getting back in that rhythm.”

Dry, slow surfaces have been a recurring complaint among squads training across the southern United States this month, and England’s wingers may need to adjust their game accordingly. For a player whose value lies in his first touch at speed, those details are not trivial.

A Transfer That Reshapes England’s Attack

Step back from the individual story and the Gordon transfer changes the texture of England’s forward line. England now travel to a World Cup with two left wingers who both call Camp Nou home, a captain in Harry Kane who outscored almost everyone in Europe, and a manager in Tuchel who has shown no sentimentality in selection. Competition of that intensity can fracture a squad or sharpen it.

The early evidence points to the latter. Rashford guiding his rival through apartment hunting in Barcelona is not the behaviour of a player protecting his territory. Gordon insisting the shirt numbers mean nothing is not the sound of a player sulking. Tuchel inherits a healthier dynamic than many England managers before him enjoyed, and the manager’s willingness to let form decide the left wing debate keeps both men honest.

There is also a quieter point about English football’s changing relationship with Spain. For decades, English players who moved to LaLiga were rarities, and several came home early. Now Rashford has spent a season there, Gordon has committed five years, and a generation of England internationals view Barcelona and Madrid as natural career steps rather than risks. The Premier League’s financial dominance was supposed to end such moves. The pull of the Camp Nou, it turns out, still works.

Two Weeks That Could Define a Summer

Gordon’s story this summer is one worth following. A boyhood Evertonian who fought his way back from a difficult exit at Goodison, rebuilt himself at Newcastle, scored his way into the Champions League’s elite, and earned the move he promised his family as a child. He has said the people closest to him always heard the same message, that he would reach this level eventually.

Now the level has arrived all at once: a new club, a new league waiting in August, and a World Cup in between. If he forces his way past Rashford and into Tuchel’s eleven, the £69 million fee may end up looking like the least interesting number of his summer. If he spends June rising from the bench, he will at least be doing it alongside a rival who helped him find a house. Either way, English football’s most watched friendship starts now.

WRITTEN BY

Jarrod

Jarrod Partridge is the Founder of Futbol Chronicle and an accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following international football. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered matches at stadiums around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every match report, player profile, and tactical analysis he writes.

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